How To Get Bonded and Insured

When starting a new business, most entrepreneurs begin their research by asking, how do I get bonded and insured? Getting bonded provides great comfort to potential clients and insurance protects businesses from risks that could put them out of business.

Therefore, it’s crucial for all business owners to do their due diligence to determine adequate insurance coverage and learn how to be bonded. First you need to understand that bonds and insurance offer different protection.

How To Become Bonded

To become bonded, you must first determine whether you need a surety or fidelity bond. The important difference is that surety bonds are required by a third party (usually the government) to protect itself or the public, and fidelity bonds are insurance for you or your business. These typically protect your business from employee theft.

If you have been required to post a surety bond, continue reading. If you are interested in fidelity coverage to protect your business, then skip to the bottom of this article.

How to Get Licensed & Bonded

How To Get Licensed & Bonded

Getting Bonded and Insured

Learning how to become bonded and insured is important for any business owner. It can often be a mistake to purchase your bonds and insurance together. Not everyone qualifies for surety bonding. So rather than asking how do you get bonded, a more appropriate question might be, can I be bonded? The majority of insurance agencies can help you to get bonded, but unfortunately do not properly understand the bond market or have the resources to properly assist you in the event of a claim. Insurance agencies know how to get you insured best, but often broker their bond business to a bond MGU that knows how to handle claims and get you the best rate. This puts a middleman into the mix, which could result in delays and increased costs, both with your rate and the handling of potential claims.

How To Get A Surety Bond

At this point you are likely asking, how do I get a surety bond? Surety bonds are offered by the industry through licensed agents. Unfortunately, the required license falls under property and casualty insurance, so most agents offering bonds primarily sell insurance products and do not fully understand the surety markets or how to assess your liability. When it comes to surety bonds, you are responsible to pay for claims. Therefore, the question you should be asking is where do I get a surety bond? It’s imperative that you obtain a surety bond from an agency that either has a full-fledged bond department or exclusively offers bonds.

The majority of agents do not know how to get a surety bond with bad credit. Not everyone qualifies for surety bonds, so applicants with credit issues need to be placed with a high risk bond program. Most agents do not have direct access to these specialty high risk bond programs, and will likely broker your bond to a large bond agency with access.

Getting Licensed & Bonded

One of the most common surety bond requirements is a license bond. So how do you get licensed, bonded and insured? Like all surety bonds, license bonds must be required by a third party. If your profession does not require a license, you cannot get licensed and bonded, but should still get insured. If your line of work does require you to obtain a license, you’ll need to ask if a surety bond is required to be posted with your application. You can also search our database of license bond requirements by state.

Bonded Contractors

To become a bonded contractor, you must first determine whether you are being bonded for a job or to work in a geographic location.

Contract bonds are what guarantee your work on a specific job. Usually, contract bonds guarantee construction of public work. There is quite a bit to learn on how these bonds work. If you are new to contract bonding, our contractor’s construction bond guide is a great starting point. If you have the basics down, you might want to explore the two most common contract bond types in our guides below.

Cost of Getting Bonded

At this point, you may be wondering, how much does it cost to get bonded and insured? While insurance products have become increasingly commoditized over the years, surety bond costs are not one size fits all. The surety bond rate is determined by an underwriter who assesses your risk of triggering a claim. Keep in mind, surety bonds are not insurance for your company, but a form of credit to you.

Bonded Employees

Now that you know the basics of surety bonding, you may be asking, how do I get bonded for my business? Fidelity bonds provide insurance protection for your company. There is a wide range of fidelity bonds. For example, employee dishonesty bonds insure your company from theft or damage should an employee commit forgery or embezzle funds. Some fidelity coverage is specific to certain lines of work. One familiar to most is a janitorial and cleaning bond, as the coverage provides homeowners and businesses they service peace of mind that the company can reimburse them in the event of theft. There are some fidelity bonds that are appropriate for any business. ERISA bonds are one of the few fidelity bonds required of businesses, as they protect employee benefit plans.

Summary

While most business owners are interested in getting bonded, there are different bonds that serve different purposes. Surety bonds are required by the government to protect the public. Some surety bonds are required of businesses to obtain a license, while contract surety bonds are required for specific jobs. Fidelity bonds are typically in place to protect the business itself and are at times a requirement as well.

Bonds are often misunderstood, even by insurance agents licensed to sell them. To ensure that you obtain the correct bonds, at a good rate, and with superior claims support, it’s important to work with an agency that specializes in bonds and not insurance.

Eric is an industry expert that specializes in taking complex surety concepts and explaining them in terms that make sense to the general public. He also manages the JW Surety Bonds website and works with various partners to help further educate the public on suretyship using various mediums.

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